Bexar workers can keep health plan

Updated 11:13 pm, Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Bexar County employees may keep their most popular health insurance option under the budget adopted Tuesday by Commissioners Court, which contains almost $1.5 billion in spending.

The health insurance overhaul proposed during budget workshops would have done away with that HMO-equivalent plan, which offered almost no co-pays for medicine and other services in exchange for higher premiums.

Under the initial plan, employees would have been moved to a program that featured lower premiums, but higher co-insurance and co-pays, making it more expensive to access care.

County employee groups, including the Deputy Sheriff's Association of Bexar County, began actively lobbying against replacing of the HMO-style plan last week, arguing the county's new program would shift too much of the costs to employees.

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“Trying to get (county employees) to understand the differences between a PPO and an EPO, et cetera; it's not always an easy sell,” said County Commissioner Kevin Wolff, who represents Precinct 3.

“We don't want to drive them crazy so essentially what we tried to do is, ‘OK, how can we leave that as an option for them and still make the budget cuts necessary?'” he said.

Under the compromise, premiums for the HMO-style program would rise significantly to reflect the higher cost of the program, Wolff said. The deputies union would have to approve the changes to the program for it to take effect. If they vote it down, he said, the county's health insurance overhaul would proceed as initially proposed.

“We think it's a good compromise,” said Henry Reyes, a member of the union's board of directors. “We understand that insurance is going up and that somebody's gotta pay for it.”

He said he was confident that the deputies' union leadership would be able to sell the compromise to the rank-and-file. The union has scheduled a vote for Thursday and Friday.

When the health care overhaul was rolled out in August, county financial staff expected that the combination of increased co-pays, co-insurance rates and doing away with the HMO-style program could save up to $7.5 million during the first year. Commissioners later undid some of the cutbacks, reducing the projected savings to up to about $5 million during the first year.

Wolff said that he expects the compromise will result in a similar amount of savings.